A post office on Cork's northside closes for good next week, marking the end of an era, writes John Dolan

The Taoiseach's annual visit to Washington on St Patrick's Day has been called off - but had he been invited by the President, he should have ignored the naysayers and gone, says John Dolan in his weekly column

Recent comments by Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron about the safety and efficacy of some Covid-19 vaccines may put off large swathes of people from having the jab, fears John Dolan

Is there something we could do on a personal and national level to address vaccine access iniquity, asks John Dolan in his weekly column

Despite myriad advances in science and medicine there remains a hard core of people who are still steadfast in refusing vaccinations, says John Dolan

In his weekly column John Dolan asks the question on everyone's lips - when will I be vaccinated against Covid-19?

In his weekly column John Dolan looks at how Micheál Martin, who only became Taoiseach 196 days ago, is handling the Covid crisis

In his weekly column John Dolan looks at reasons to be optimistic for the year ahead 

In his weekly column, John Dolan reflects on the past nine months, since Leo Varadkar made his famous speech on Covid

Where is the logic or fairness in keeping wet pubs closed? asks John Dolan in his weekly column

If the most powerful man in the world is subject to scrutiny and censorship from a company with a global reach like Twitter, doesn’t that make Twitter the most powerful force in the world? So asks John Dolan in his weekly column

John Dolan says he was reminded of Ireland’s love-hate attitude to the British monarchy when he watched the acclaimed TV series The Crown.

Could we weather a lockdown three? So asks John Dolan in his weekly column

Not only must we pray for a vaccine, but we must also pray that it falls into the right hands, and that the people who find it are as altruistic as one of the greatest Corkmen who ever lived, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

It is a shame that some icons in Cork history have missed their moment in the sun, so their stories can be re-told, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Like the flat-earth debate, the anti-mask one completely lacks logic, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Hand over all 10,000 All-Ireland finals tickets to the frontline medical staff — doctors, nurses and hospital admin people — who have played such a big part in containing the Covid-19 crisis, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

I wonder if, in the ongoing battle to curb the spread of Covid-19, we will soon see curfews again imposed on the streets of Cork in 2020, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Let’s not get too misty-eyed about the demolition of The Sextant, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

My family and I — like millions of people across the land — have been blameless since the start of the pandemic in early March. We have dutifully followed every order and edict. Now we have to go back a step

There was surely a strong case to reopen pubs in some  counties; even on a trial basis of a few weeks, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Why put someone perfectly fit and able in mind and body out to pasture and pay them a weekly pension when they reach the magic age of 66, as though they can no longer contribute to the workplace? It doesn’t make sense, so says John Dolan.

Plastic is choking our oceans and killing wildlife, plants, and fish at a frightening rate. But as members of the public, we can all do our bit to try to alleviate this situation, even in small ways, so says John Dolan

One pledge in the Programme for Government, amidst all the vague waffle stood out loud and proud is that the new Government is going to quadruple the carbon tax within the next ten years. John Dolan reflects on the plan

Statues can cause problems when times and attitudes change or when history shifts on its axis, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Now that the lockdown is slowly starting to lift, I believe it is time we focused our efforts on holding some form of memorial service to honour all the dead since early March, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Boris Johnson stepped up to the plate during Covid-19 - and it promptly shattered under his feet, so says John Dolan

The amount of money we as a nation spend, and the amount we tax people, will come into sharper focus in the years ahead, as our economy tries to recover from the pandemic shutdown. So says John Dolan

We’re told it will be the end of May before negotiations to form a new government are concluded and June before the white smoke of a new coalition — just in time for the summer recess! But even this attempt at a cobbled-up coalition looks like it may end in failure, so says John Dolan.

One of the great fallacies about Covid-19 is that it only takes the old and vulnerable. It’s true that these are the main victims, but I have read far too many tragic stories of late that refer to young and apparently heathy people dying of the disease, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

Sure, the coronavirus is having an impact on all of our lives, but there is one cohort of people who are bearing the brunt of it — in every conceivable way: Our elderly. So says John Dolan in his weekly column

The coronavirus will shift the sands of politics not just in Ireland but across the world, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

100 years ago this week, Ireland was invaded by another foreign body which wrought havoc across the land... so says John Dolan in his weekly column

COMPARED to the loud, rowdy and often booze-fuelled newspaper offices of yesteryear, today’s are akin to a library. And I don’t mean an Irish library, where people seem to have impunity to talk as loudly as they do in the outside world.

This country faces a rocky time in the weeks ahead. Calm heads and perspective are required, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

John Dolan: If - or should that be when? - the virus reaches our shores, we will need a strong, decisive government in place, so stop the post-election dithering!

Many here will relish Mary Lou trading verbal blows with Boris Johnson and the Brexiting Brits. Others, especially those with memories of the recent conflicts between the two on this island, will recoil at the prospect, so says John Dolan.

John Dolan digests the recent results of the General Election in his weekly column

You can’t make it from dawn to dusk these days without someone calling for something frivolous to be banned, moderated, restricted, or ruled downright unlawful, so says John Dolan in his weekly column

50 weeks after he first applied, John Dolan became a fully-fledged Irish citizen.

Actors, singers and associated hangers-on —are all falling over themselves to tell us how to live our lives, so says John Dolan

One enduring festive tradition that has been written off a few times in recent years is that of sending Christmas cards, so says John Dolan

What a shame that an activity that is played just about every day of the week on Leeside should have been forced to the brink of extinction, says John Dolan in his weekly column

“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.

For outsiders like me, Gay Byrne was our Identikit Irishman; and he did is so well that he made us want to be Irish, so says John Dolan

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan should visit our village, where he will see the buses are  irregular and children cannot cycle or walk to school as the roads are so dangerous, says John Dolan

Shouldn’t we be doing a little more to protect our teenagers from scenes of gratuitous violence as appear in the acclaimed Joker? So says John Dolan

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened. ”IT’S a funny thing ageing, it creeps up on you when you’re not looking, then. . . boo! You’re not young any more.

The prospect of a female bond has ruffled the feathers of a few fellas.  John Dolan has some sympathy for their views - but only because he has the perfect person for the job, Corkman Cillian Murphy.